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.Dd October 3, 2025
.Dt ICE 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ice
.Nd Intel Ethernet 800 Series Driver
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd device iflib
.Cd device ice
.Pp
In
.Xr loader.conf 5 :
.Cd if_ice_load
.Cd hw.ice.enable_health_events
.Cd hw.ice.irdma
.Cd hw.ice.irdma_max_msix
.Cd hw.ice.debug.enable_tx_fc_filter
.Cd hw.ice.debug.enable_tx_lldp_filter
.Cd hw.ice.debug.ice_tx_balance_en
.Pp
In
.Xr sysctl.conf 5
or
.Xr loader.conf 5 :
.Cd dev.ice.#.current_speed
.Cd dev.ice.#.fw_version
.Cd dev.ice.#.ddp_version
.Cd dev.ice.#.pba_number
.Cd dev.ice.#.hw.mac.*
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Ss Features
The
.Nm
driver provides support for any PCI Express adapter or LOM
(LAN On Motherboard)
in the Intel\(rg Ethernet 800 Series.
As of this writing, the series includes devices with these model numbers:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Controller E810\-C
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Controller E810\-XXV
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E822\-C
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E822\-L
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E823\-C
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E823\-L
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E825\-C
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E830\-C
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E830\-CC
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E830\-L
.It
Intel\(rg Ethernet Connection E830\-XXV
.El
.Pp
For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the documentation
supplied with the adapter.
.Pp
Support for Jumbo Frames is provided via the interface MTU setting.
Selecting an MTU larger than 1500 bytes with the
.Xr ifconfig 8
utility configures the adapter to receive and transmit Jumbo Frames.
The maximum MTU size for Jumbo Frames is 9706.
For more information, see the
.Sx Jumbo Frames
section.
.Pp
This driver version supports VLANs.
For information on enabling VLANs, see
.Xr vlan 4 .
For additional information on configuring VLANs, see
.Xr ifconfig 8 Ap s
.Dq VLAN Parameters
section.
.Pp
Offloads are also controlled via the interface, for instance, checksumming for
both IPv4 and IPv6 can be set and unset, TSO4 and/or TSO6, and finally LRO can
be set and unset.
.Pp
For more information on configuring this device, see
.Xr ifconfig 8 .
.Pp
The associated Virtual Function (VF) driver for this driver is
.Xr iavf 4 .
.Pp
The associated RDMA driver for this driver is
.Xr irdma 4 .
.Ss Dynamic Device Personalization
The DDP package loads during device initialization.
The driver looks for the
.Sy ice_ddp
module and checks that it contains a valid DDP package file.
.Pp
If the driver is unable to load the DDP package, the device will enter Safe
Mode.
Safe Mode disables advanced and performance features and supports only
basic traffic and minimal functionality, such as updating the NVM or
downloading a new driver or DDP package.
Safe Mode only applies to the affected physical function and does not impact
any other PFs.
See the
.Dq Intel\(rg Ethernet Adapters and Devices User Guide
for more details on DDP and Safe Mode.
.Pp
If issues are encountered with the DDP package file, an updated driver or
.Sy ice_ddp
module may need to be downloaded.
See the log messages for more information.
.Pp
The DDP package cannot be updated if any PF drivers are already loaded.
To overwrite a package, unload all PFs and then reload the driver with the
new package.
.Pp
Only one DDP package can be used per driver, even if more than one
device installed that uses the driver.
.Pp
Only the first loaded PF per device can download a package for that device.
.Ss Jumbo Frames
Jumbo Frames support is enabled by changing the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
to a value larger than the default value of 1500.
.Pp
Use
.Xr ifconfig 8
to increase the MTU size.
.Pp
The maximum MTU setting for jumbo frames is 9706.
This corresponds to the maximum jumbo frame size of 9728 bytes.
.Pp
This driver will attempt to use multiple page sized buffers to receive
each jumbo packet.
This should help to avoid buffer starvation issues when allocating receive
packets.
.Pp
Packet loss may have a greater impact on throughput when jumbo frames are in
use.
If a drop in performance is observed after enabling jumbo frames, enabling
flow control may mitigate the issue.
.Ss Remote Direct Memory Access
Remote Direct Memory Access, or RDMA, allows a network device to transfer data
directly to and from application memory on another system, increasing
throughput and lowering latency in certain networking environments.
.Pp
The ice driver supports both the iWARP (Internet Wide Area RDMA Protocol) and
RoCEv2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) protocols.
The major difference is that iWARP performs RDMA over TCP, while RoCEv2 uses
UDP.
.Pp
Devices based on the Intel\(rg Ethernet 800 Series do not support RDMA when
operating in multiport mode with more than 4 ports.
.Pp
For detailed installation and configuration information for RDMA, see
.Xr irdma 4 .
.Ss RDMA Monitoring
For debugging/testing purposes, a sysctl can be used to set up a mirroring
interface on a port.
The interface can receive mirrored RDMA traffic for packet
analysis tools like
.Xr tcpdump 1 .
This mirroring may impact performance.
.Pp
To use RDMA monitoring, more MSI\-X interrupts may need to be reserved.
Before the
.Nm
driver loads, configure the following tunable provided by
.Xr iflib 4 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
dev.ice.<interface #>.iflib.use_extra_msix_vectors=4
.Ed
.Pp
The number of extra MSI\-X interrupt vectors may need to be adjusted.
.Pp
To create/delete the interface:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.create_interface=1
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.delete_interface=1
.Ed
.Pp
The mirrored interface receives both LAN and RDMA traffic.
Additional filters can be configured in tcpdump.
.Pp
To differentiate the mirrored interface from the primary interface, the network
interface naming convention is:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
<driver name><port number><modifier><modifier unit number>
.Ed
.Pp
For example,
.Dq Li ice0m0
is the first mirroring interface on
.Dq Li ice0 .
.Ss Data Center Bridging
Data Center Bridging (DCB) is a configuration Quality of Service
implementation in hardware.
It uses the VLAN priority tag (802.1p) to filter traffic.
That means that there are 8 different priorities that traffic can be filtered
into.
It also enables priority flow control (802.1Qbb) which can limit or eliminate
the number of dropped packets during network stress.
Bandwidth can be allocated to each of these priorities, which is enforced at
the hardware level (802.1Qaz).
.Pp
DCB is normally configured on the network using the DCBX protocol (802.1Qaz), a
specialization of LLDP (802.1AB). The
.Nm
driver supports the following mutually exclusive variants of DCBX support:
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
Firmware\-based LLDP Agent
.It
Software\-based LLDP Agent
.El
.Pp
In firmware\-based mode, firmware intercepts all LLDP traffic and handles DCBX
negotiation transparently for the user.
In this mode, the adapter operates in
.Dq willing
DCBX mode, receiving DCB settings from the link partner (typically a
switch).
The local user can only query the negotiated DCB configuration.
For information on configuring DCBX parameters on a switch, please consult the
switch manufacturer'ss documentation.
.Pp
In software\-based mode, LLDP traffic is forwarded to the network stack and user
space, where a software agent can handle it.
In this mode, the adapter can operate in
.Dq nonwilling
DCBX mode and DCB configuration can be both queried and set locally.
This mode requires the FW\-based LLDP Agent to be disabled.
.Pp
Firmware\-based mode and software\-based mode are controlled by the
.Dq fw_lldp_agent
sysctl.
Refer to the Firmware Link Layer Discovery Protocol Agent section for more
information.
.Pp
Link\-level flow control and priority flow control are mutually exclusive.
The ice driver will disable link flow control when priority flow control
is enabled on any traffic class (TC).
It will disable priority flow control when link flow control is enabled.
.Pp
To enable/disable priority flow control in software\-based DCBX mode:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.pfc=1 (or 0 to disable)
.Ed
.Pp
Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) allows bandwidth to be assigned to certain
TCs, to help ensure traffic reliability.
To view the assigned ETS configuration, use the following:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.ets_min_rate
.Ed
.Pp
To set the minimum ETS bandwidth per TC, separate the values by commas.
All values must add up to 100.
For example, to set all TCs to a minimum bandwidth of 10% and TC 7 to 30%,
use the following:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.ets_min_rate=10,10,10,10,10,10,10,30
.Ed
.Pp
To set the User Priority (UP) to a TC mapping for a port, separate the values
by commas.
For example, to map UP 0 and 1 to TC 0, UP 2 and 3 to TC 1, UP 4 and
5 to TC 2, and UP 6 and 7 to TC 3, use the following:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.up2tc_map=0,0,1,1,2,2,3,3
.Ed
.Ss L3 QoS mode
The
.Nm
driver supports setting DSCP\-based Layer 3 Quality of Service (L3 QoS)
in the PF driver.
The driver initializes in L2 QoS mode by default; L3 QoS is disabled by
default.
Use the following sysctl to enable or disable L3 QoS:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.pfc_mode=1 (or 0 to disable)
.Ed
.Pp
If the L3 QoS mode is disabled, it returns to L2 QoS mode.
.Pp
To map a DSCP value to a traffic class, separate the values by commas.
For example, to map DSCPs 0\-3 and DSCP 8 to DCB TCs 0\-3 and 4, respectively:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.dscp2tc_map.0\-7=0,1,2,3,0,0,0,0
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.dscp2tc_map.8\-15=4,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
.Ed
.Pp
To change the DSCP mapping back to the default traffic class, set all the
values back to 0.
.Pp
To view the currently configured mappings, use the following:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.dscp2tc_map
.Ed
.Pp
L3 QoS mode is not available when FW\-LLDP is enabled.
.Pp
FW\-LLDP cannot be enabled if L3 QoS mode is active.
.Pp
Disable FW\-LLDP before switching to L3 QoS mode.
.Pp
Refer to the
.Sx Firmware Link Layer Discovery Protocol Agent
section in this README for more information on disabling FW\-LLDP.
.Ss Firmware Link Layer Discovery Protocol Agent
Use sysctl to change FW\-LLDP settings.
The FW\-LLDP setting is per port and persists across boots.
.Pp
To enable the FW\-LLDP Agent:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.fw_lldp_agent=1
.Ed
.Pp
To disable the FW\-LLDP Agebt:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.fw_lldp_agent=0
.Ed
.Pp
To check the current LLDP setting:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.fw_lldp_agent
.Ed
.Pp
The UEFI HII LLDP Agent attribute must be enabled for this setting
to take effect.
If the
.Dq LLDP AGENT
attribute is set to disabled, the FW\-LLDP Agent cannot be enabled from the
driver.
.Ss Link\-Level Flow Control (LFC)
Ethernet Flow Control (IEEE 802.3x) can be configured with sysctl to enable
receiving and transmitting pause frames for
.Nm .
When transmit is enabled, pause frames are generated when the receive packet
buffer crosses a predefined threshold.
When receive is enabled, the transmit unit will halt for the time delay
specified in the firmware when a pause frame is received.
.Pp
Flow Control is disabled by default.
.Pp
Use sysctl to change the flow control settings for a single interface without
reloading the driver:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.fc
.Ed
.Pp
The available values for flow control are:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
0 = Disable flow control
1 = Enable Rx pause
2 = Enable Tx pause
3 = Enable Rx and Tx pause
.Ed
.Pp
Verify that link flow control was negotiated on the link by checking the
interface entry in
.Xr ifconfig 8
and looking for the flags
.Dq txpause
and/or
.Dq rxpause
in the
.Dq media
status.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver requires flow control on both the port and link partner.
If flow control is disabled on one of the sides, the port may appear to
hang on heavy traffic.
.Pp
For more information on priority flow control, refer to the
.Sx Data Center Bridging
section.
.Pp
The VF driver does not have access to flow control.
It must be managed from the host side.
.Ss Forward Error Correction
Forward Error Correction (FEC) improves link stability but increases latency.
Many high quality optics, direct attach cables, and backplane channels can
provide a stable link without FEC.
.Pp
For devices to benefit from this feature, link partners must have FEC enabled.
.Pp
If the
.Va allow_no_fec_modules_in_auto
sysctl is enabled Auto FEC negotiation will include
.Dq No FEC
in case the link partner does not have FEC enabled or is not FEC capable:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.allow_no_fec_modules_in_auto=1
.Ed
.Pp
NOTE: This flag is currently not supported on the Intel\(rg Ethernet 830
Series.
.Pp
To show the current FEC settings that are negotiated on the link:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.negotiated_fec
.Ed
.Pp
To view or set the FEC setting that was requested on the link:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.requested_fec
.Ed
.Pp
To see the valid FEC modes for the link:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl \-d dev.ice.<interface #>.requested_fec
.Ed
.Ss Speed and Duplex Configuration
The speed and duplex settings cannot be hard set.
.Pp
To have the device change the speeds it will use in auto-negotiation or
force link with:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.advertise_speed=<mask>
.Ed
.Pp
Supported speeds will vary by device.
Depending on the speeds the device supports, valid bits used in a speed mask
could include:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
0x0 \- Auto
0x2 \- 100 Mbps
0x4 \- 1 Gbps
0x8 \- 2.5 Gbps
0x10 \- 5 Gbps
0x20 \- 10 Gbps
0x80 \- 25 Gbps
0x100 \- 40 Gbps
0x200 \- 50 Gbps
0x400 \- 100 Gbps
0x800 \- 200 Gbps
.Ed
.Ss Disabling physical link when the interface is brought down
When the
.Va link_active_on_if_down
sysctl is set to
.Dq 0 ,
the port's link will go down when the interface is brought down.
By default, link will stay up.
.Pp
To disable link when the interface is down:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.link_active_on_if_down=0
.Ed
.Ss Firmware Logging
The
.Nm
driver allows for the generation of firmware logs for supported categories of
events, to help debug issues with Customer Support.
Refer to the
.Dq Intel\(rg Ethernet Adapters and Devices User Guide
for an overview of this feature and additional tips.
.Pp
At a high level, to capture a firmware log:
.Bl -enum -compact
.It
Set the configuration for the firmware log.
.It
Perform the necessary steps to reproduce the issue.
.It
Capture the firmware log.
.It
Stop capturing the firmware log.
.It
Reset the firmware log settings as needed.
.It
Work with Customer Support to debug the issue.
.El
.Pp
NOTE: Firmware logs are generated in a binary format and must be decoded by
Customer Support.
Information collected is related only to firmware and hardware for debug
purposes.
.Pp
Once the driver is loaded, it will create the
.Va fw_log
sysctl node under the debug section of the driver's sysctl list.
The driver groups these events into categories, called
.Dq modules .
Supported modules include:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -offset indent -compact -width "task_dispatch"
.It Va general
General (Bit 0)
.It Va ctrl
Control (Bit 1)
.It Va link
Link Management (Bit 2)
.It Va link_topo
Link Topology Detection (Bit 3)
.It Va dnl
Link Control Technology (Bit 4)
.It Va i2c
I2C (Bit 5)
.It Va sdp
SDP (Bit 6)
.It Va mdio
MDIO (Bit 7)
.It Va adminq
Admin Queue (Bit 8)
.It Va hdma
Host DMA (Bit 9)
.It Va lldp
LLDP (Bit 10)
.It Va dcbx
DCBx (Bit 11)
.It Va dcb
DCB (Bit 12)
.It Va xlr
XLR (function\-level resets; Bit 13)
.It Va nvm
NVM (Bit 14)
.It Va auth
Authentication (Bit 15)
.It Va vpd
Vital Product Data (Bit 16)
.It Va iosf
Intel On\-Chip System Fabric (Bit 17)
.It Va parser
Parser (Bit 18)
.It Va sw
Switch (Bit 19)
.It Va scheduler
Scheduler (Bit 20)
.It Va txq
TX Queue Management (Bit 21)
.It Va acl
ACL (Access Control List; Bit 22)
.It Va post
Post (Bit 23)
.It Va watchdog
Watchdog (Bit 24)
.It Va task_dispatch
Task Dispatcher (Bit 25)
.It Va mng
Manageability (Bit 26)
.It Va synce
SyncE (Bit 27)
.It Va health
Health (Bit 28)
.It Va tsdrv
Time Sync (Bit 29)
.It Va pfreg
PF Registration (Bit 30)
.It Va mdlver
Module Version (Bit 31)
.El
.Pp
The verbosity level of the firmware logs can be modified.
It is possible to set only one log level per module, and each level includes the
verbosity levels lower than it.
For instance, setting the level to
.Dq normal
will also log warning and error messages.
Available verbosity levels are:
.Pp
.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
.It
0 = none
.It
1 = error
.It
2 = warning
.It
3 = normal
.It
4 = verbose
.El
.Pp
To set the desired verbosity level for a module, use the following sysctl
command and then register it:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.debug.fw_log.severity.<module>=<level>
.Ed
.Pp
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.0.debug.fw_log.severity.link=1
sysctl dev.ice.0.debug.fw_log.severity.link_topo=2
sysctl dev.ice.0.debug.fw_log.register=1
.Ed
.Pp
To log firmware messages after booting, but before the driver initializes, use
.Xr kenv 1
to set the tunable.
The
.Va on_load
setting tells the device to register the variable as soon as possible during
driver load.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
kenv dev.ice.0.debug.fw_log.severity.link=1
kenv dev.ice.0.debug.fw_log.severity.link_topo=2
kenv dev.ice.0.debug.fw_log.on_load=1
.Ed
.Pp
To view the firmware logs and redirect them to a file, use the following
command:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
dmesg > log_output
.Ed
.Pp
NOTE: Logging a large number of modules or too high of a verbosity level will
add extraneous messages to dmesg and could hinder debug efforts.
.Ss Debug Dump
Intel\(rg Ethernet 800 Series devices support debug dump, which allows
gathering of runtime register values from the firmware for
.Dq clusters
of events and then write the results to a single dump file, for debugging
complicated issues in the field.
.Pp
This debug dump contains a snapshot of the device and its existing hardware
configuration, such as switch tables, transmit scheduler tables, and other
information.
Debug dump captures the current state of the specified cluster(s) and is a
stateless snapshot of the whole device.
.Pp
NOTE: Like with firmware logs, the contents of the debug dump are not
human\-readable.
Work with Customer Support to decode the file.
.Pp
Debug dump is per device, not per PF.
.Pp
Debug dump writes all information to a single file.
.Pp
To generate a debug dump file in
.Fx
do the following:
.Pp
Specify the cluster(s) to include in the dump file, using a bitmask and the
following command:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.debug.dump.clusters=<bitmask>
.Ed
.Pp
To print the complete cluster bitmask and parameter list to the screen,
pass the
.Fl d
argument.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl \-d dev.ice.0.debug.dump.clusters
.Ed
.Pp
Possible bitmask values for
.Va clusters
are:
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
0 \- Dump all clusters (only supported on Intel\(rg Ethernet E810 Series and
Intel\(rg Ethernet E830 Series)
.It
0x1 \- Switch
.It
0x2 \- ACL
.It
0x4 \- Tx Scheduler
.It
0x8 \- Profile Configuration
.It
0x20 \- Link
.It
0x80 \- DCB
.It
0x100 \- L2P
.It
0x400000 \- Manageability Transactions (only supported on Intel\(rg Ethernet
E810 Series)
.El
.Pp
For example, to dump the Switch, DCB, and L2P clusters, use the following:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.0.debug.dump.clusters=0x181
.Ed
.Pp
To dump all clusters, use the following:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.0.debug.dump.clusters=0
.Ed
.Pp
NOTE: Using 0 will skip Manageability Transactions data.
.Pp
If a single cluster is not specified, the driver will dump all clusters to a
single file.
Issue the debug dump command, using the following:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl \-b dev.ice.<interface #>.debug.dump.dump=1 > dump.bin
.Ed
.Pp
NOTE: The driver will not receive the command if the sysctl is not set to
.Dq 1 .
.Pp
Replace
.Dq dump.bin
above with the preferred file name.
.Pp
To clear the
.Va clusters
mask before a subsequent debug dump and then do the dump:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.0.debug.dump.clusters=0
sysctl dev.ice.0.debug.dump.dump=1
.Ed
.Ss Debugging PHY Statistics
The ice driver supports the ability to obtain the values of the PHY registers
from Intel(R) Ethernet 810 Series devices in order to debug link and
connection issues during runtime.
.Pp
The driver provides information about:
.Bl -bullet
.It
Rx and Tx Equalization parameters
.It
RS FEC correctable and uncorrectable block counts
.El
.Pp
Use the following sysctl to read the PHY registers:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.debug.phy_statistics
.Ed
.Pp
NOTE: The contents of the registers are not human\-readable.
Like with firmware logs and debug dump, work with Customer Support
to decode the file.
.Ss Transmit Balancing
Some Intel(R) Ethernet 800 Series devices allow for enabling a transmit
balancing feature to improve transmit performance under certain conditions.
When enabled, the feature should provide more consistent transmit
performance across queues and/or PFs and VFs.
.Pp
By default, transmit balancing is disabled in the NVM.
To enable this feature, use one of the following to persistently change the
setting for the device:
.Bl -bullet
.It
Use the Ethernet Port Configuration Tool (EPCT) to enable the
.Va tx_balancing
option.
Refer to the EPCT readme for more information.
.It
Enable the Transmit Balancing device setting in UEFI HII.
.El
.Pp
When the driver loads, it reads the transmit balancing setting from the NVM and
configures the device accordingly.
.Pp
NOTE: The user selection for transmit balancing in EPCT or HII is persistent
across reboots.
The system must be rebooted for the selected setting to take effect.
.Pp
This setting is device wide.
.Pp
The driver, NVM, and DDP package must all support this functionality to
enable the feature.
.Ss Thermal Monitoring
Intel(R) Ethernet 810 Series and Intel(R) Ethernet 830 Series devices can
display temperature data (in degrees Celsius) via:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl dev.ice.<interface #>.temp
.Ed
.Ss Network Memory Buffer Allocation
.Fx
may have a low number of network memory buffers (mbufs) by default.
If the number of mbufs available is too low, it may cause the driver to fail
to initialize and/or cause the system to become unresponsive.
Check to see if the system is mbuf\-starved by running
.Ic netstat Fl m .
Increase the number of mbufs by editing the lines below in
.Pa /etc/sysctl.conf :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
kern.ipc.nmbclusters
kern.ipc.nmbjumbop
kern.ipc.nmbjumbo9
kern.ipc.nmbjumbo16
kern.ipc.nmbufs
.Ed
.Pp
The amount of memory that should be allocated is system specific, and may require some
trial and error.
Also, increasing the following in
.Pa /etc/sysctl.conf
could help increase network performance:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
kern.ipc.maxsockbuf
net.inet.tcp.sendspace
net.inet.tcp.recvspace
net.inet.udp.maxdgram
net.inet.udp.recvspace
.Ed
.Ss Additional Utilities
There are additional tools available from Intel to help configure and update
the adapters covered by this driver.
These tools can be downloaded directly from Intel at
.Lk https://downloadcenter.intel.com ,
by searching for their names:
.Bl -bullet
.It
To change the behavior of the QSFP28 ports on E810-C adapters, use the Intel
.Sy Ethernet Port Configuration Tool - FreeBSD .
.It
To update the firmware on an adapter, use the Intel
.Sy Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Update Utility for Intel Ethernet Network Adapters E810 series - FreeBSD
.El
.Sh HARDWARE
The
.Nm
driver supports the Intel Ethernet 800 series.
Some adapters in this series with SFP28/QSFP28 cages
have firmware that requires that Intel qualified modules are used; these
qualified modules are listed below.
This qualification check cannot be disabled by the driver.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver supports 100Gb Ethernet adapters with these QSFP28 modules:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
Intel\(rg 100G QSFP28 100GBASE-SR4   E100GQSFPSR28SRX
.It
Intel\(rg 100G QSFP28 100GBASE-SR4   SPTMBP1PMCDF
.It
Intel\(rg 100G QSFP28 100GBASE-CWDM4 SPTSBP3CLCCO
.It
Intel\(rg 100G QSFP28 100GBASE-DR    SPTSLP2SLCDF
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver supports 25Gb and 10Gb Ethernet adapters with these SFP28 modules:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
Intel\(rg 10G/25G SFP28 25GBASE-SR E25GSFP28SR
.It
Intel\(rg     25G SFP28 25GBASE-SR E25GSFP28SRX (Extended Temp)
.It
Intel\(rg     25G SFP28 25GBASE-LR E25GSFP28LRX (Extended Temp)
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver supports 10Gb and 1Gb Ethernet adapters with these SFP+ modules:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
Intel\(rg 1G/10G SFP+ 10GBASE-SR E10GSFPSR
.It
Intel\(rg 1G/10G SFP+ 10GBASE-SR E10GSFPSRG1P5
.It
Intel\(rg 1G/10G SFP+ 10GBASE-SR E10GSFPSRG2P5
.It
Intel\(rg    10G SFP+ 10GBASE-SR E10GSFPSRX (Extended Temp)
.It
Intel\(rg 1G/10G SFP+ 10GBASE-LR E10GSFPLR
.El
.Pp
Note that adapters also support all passive and active
limiting direct attach cables that comply with SFF-8431 v4.1 and
SFF-8472 v10.4 specifications.
.Pp
This is not an exhaustive list; please consult product documentation for an
up-to-date list of supported media.
.Ss Fiber optics and auto\-negotiation
Modules based on 100GBASE\-SR4, active optical cable (AOC), and active copper
cable (ACC) do not support auto\-negotiation per the IEEE specification.
To obtain link with these modules, auto\-negotiation must be turned off on the
link partner's switch ports.
.Ss PCI-Express Slot Bandwidth
Some PCIe x8 slots are actually configured as x4 slots.
These slots have insufficient bandwidth for full line rate with dual port and
quad port devices.
In addition, if a PCIe v4.0 or v3.0\-capable adapter is placed into a PCIe v2.x
slot, full bandwidth will not be possible.
.Pp
The driver detects this situation and writes the following message in the
system log:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
PCI\-Express bandwidth available for this device may be insufficient for
optimal performance.
Please move the device to a different PCI\-e link with more lanes and/or
higher transfer rate.
.Ed
.Pp
If this error occurs, moving the adapter to a true PCIe x8 or x16 slot will
resolve the issue.
For best performance, install devices in the following PCI slots:
.Bl -bullet
.It
Any 100Gbps\-capable Intel(R) Ethernet 800 Series device: Install in a
PCIe v4.0 x8 or v3.0 x16 slot
.It
A 200Gbps\-capable Intel(R) Ethernet 830 Series device: Install in a
PCIe v5.0 x8 or v4.0 x16 slot
.El
.Sh LOADER TUNABLES
Tunables can be set at the
.Xr loader 8
prompt before booting the kernel or stored in
.Xr loader.conf 5 .
See the
.Xr iflib 4
man page for more information on using iflib sysctl variables as tunables.
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Va hw.ice.enable_health_events
Set to 1 to enable firmware health event reporting across all devices.
Enabled by default.
.Pp
If enabled, when the driver receives a firmware health event message, it will
print out a description of the event to the kernel message buffer and if
applicable, possible actions to take to remedy it.
.It Va hw.ice.irdma
Set to 1 to enable the RDMA client interface, required by the
.Xr irdma 4
driver.
Enabled by default.
.It Va hw.ice.rdma_max_msix
Set the maximum number of per-device MSI-X vectors that are allocated for use
by the
.Xr irdma 4
driver.
Set to 64 by default.
.It Va hw.ice.debug.enable_tx_fc_filter
Set to 1 to enable the TX Flow Control filter across all devices.
Enabled by default.
.Pp
If enabled, the hardware will drop any transmitted Ethertype 0x8808 control
frames that do not originate from the hardware.
.It Va hw.ice.debug.enable_tx_lldp_filter
Set to 1 to enable the TX LLDP filter across all devices.
Enabled by default.
.Pp
If enabled, the hardware will drop any transmitted Ethertype 0x88cc LLDP frames
that do not originate from the hardware.
This must be disabled in order to use LLDP daemon software such as
.Xr lldpd 8 .
.It Va hw.ice.debug.ice_tx_balance_en
Set to 1 to allow the driver to use the 5-layer Tx Scheduler tree topology if
configured by the DDP package.
.Pp
Enabled by default.
.El
.Sh SYSCTL VARIABLES
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Va dev.ice.#.current_speed
This is a display of the current link speed of the interface.
This is expected to match the speed of the media type in-use displayed by
.Xr ifconfig 8 .
.It Va dev.ice.#.fw_version
Displays the current firmware and NVM versions of the adapter.
This information should be submitted along with any support requests.
.It Va dev.ice.#.ddp_version
Displays the current DDP package version downloaded to the adapter.
This information should be submitted along with any support requests.
.It Va dev.ice.#.pba_number
Displays the Product Board Assembly Number.
May be used to help identify the type of adapter in use.
This sysctl may not exist depending on the adapter type.
.It Va dev.ice.#.hw.mac.*
This sysctl tree contains statistics collected by the hardware for the port.
.El
.Sh INTERRUPT STORMS
It is important to note that 100G operation can generate high
numbers of interrupts, often incorrectly being interpreted as
a storm condition in the kernel.
It is suggested that this be resolved by setting
.Va hw.intr_storm_threshold
to 0.
.Sh IOVCTL OPTIONS
The driver supports additional optional parameters for created VFs
(Virtual Functions) when using
.Xr iovctl 8 :
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It mac-addr Pq unicast-mac
Set the Ethernet MAC address that the VF will use.
If unspecified, the VF will use a randomly generated MAC address and
.Dq allow-set-mac
will be set to true.
.It mac-anti-spoof Pq bool
Prevent the VF from sending Ethernet frames with a source address
that does not match its own.
Enabled by default.
.It allow-set-mac Pq bool
Allow the VF to set its own Ethernet MAC address.
Disallowed by default.
.It allow-promisc Pq bool
Allow the VF to inspect all of the traffic sent to the port that it is created
on.
Disabled by default.
.It num-queues Pq uint16_t
Specify the number of queues the VF will have.
By default, this is set to the number of MSI\-X vectors supported by the VF
minus one.
.It mirror-src-vsi Pq uint16_t
Specify which VSI the VF will mirror traffic from by setting this to a value
other than \-1.
All traffic from that VSI will be mirrored to this VF.
Can be used as an alternative method to mirror RDMA traffic to another
interface than the method described in the
.Sx RDMA Monitoring
section.
Not affected by the
.Dq allow-promisc
parameter.
.It max-vlan-allowed Pq uint16_t
Specify maximum number of VLAN filters that the VF can use.
Receiving traffic on a VLAN requires a hardware filter which are a finite
resource; this is used to prevent a VF from starving other VFs or the PF of
filter resources.
By default, this is set to 16.
.It max-mac-filters Pq uint16_t
Specify maximum number of MAC address filters that the VF can use.
Each allowed MAC address requires a hardware filter which are a finite
resource; this is used to prevent a VF from starving other VFs or the PF of
filter resources.
The VF's default mac address does not count towards this limit.
By default, this is set to 64.
.El
.Pp
An up to date list of parameters and their defaults can be found by using
.Xr iovctl 8
with the
.Fl S
option.
.Pp
For more information on standard and mandatory parameters, see
.Xr iovctl.conf 5 .
.Sh SUPPORT
For general information and support, go to the Intel support website at:
.Lk http://www.intel.com/support/ .
.Pp
If an issue is identified with this driver with a supported adapter,
email all the specific information related to the issue to
.Aq Mt freebsd@intel.com .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr iflib 4 ,
.Xr vlan 4 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
.Xr sysctl 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
device driver first appeared in
.Fx 12.2 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Intel Corporation Aq Mt freebsd@intel.com .
